Lieu’s post here got me thinking about when I would have laughed the hardest and I came up with a few:
I laughed really hard, hard enough to literally pee myself, at something my best friend Chris said one day. We were on his stoop after walking home from school and I would have been about 11. Unfortunately I can’t remember the exact conversation but it was at the end of a long goofy talk during which I was trying hard to “hold it”.
My mom was trying to describe one actor as similar to someone else and my father must have been in a bad mood and when she said “It’s the mouth” he says “Well, everyone has a mouth!” Luckily I laughed my ass off because mom said it broke up a mood that was growing dangerously dark.
One time my friend out of nowhere made a reference to Zoolander’s use of “eugoogly” and it just happened to strike me uproariously.
For TV: The parody of Vanilla Ice on In Living Color “I’m a little teapot, short and stout!” Chris Farley as Carnie Wilson on SNL’s tribute song for free-range chickens. Jason Priestley commenting on the disastrous figure skating on SNL. And most recently, the GWAR impersonators on American Idol!
The hardest I ever laughed was hanging out with friends. We were drinking a little and one of my friends said something incredibly stupid and gross. We all broke up laughing very hard, it was an infectious laughter and kept going for a long time resulting in my ribs hurting. We finally stopped laughing, I ran upstairs to go to the bathroom and as I was coming down the stairs, one of my friends repeated the Phrase and I fell down the stairs laughing all the way and another 10 minute round of laughter occurred.
For TV it was the first run of the Taxi Episode with Rev. Jim’s drivers test.
“What Does a Yellow Light mean?”
“Slow Down”
…
Most of the times I’ve laughed the hardest were when I’ve been baked. I don’t do it anymore, but I can remember several situations where we were sitting around smoking the wacky tobaccy and something was said- I probably couldn’t remember the next day what it was- and I ended up curled on the floor laughing so hard my stomach muscles hurt, tears streaming from my eyes, unable to get my breath, just gasping for enough oxygen to continue laughing, which continued to hurt. It was just an endless cycle.
Those whole body, cathartic laughter episodes were nice, every now and then.
This Outpost.com commercial made me laugh – for over 20 minutes. I was simply incapable of stopping. Every time I’d start to regain my composure, my brain would say “splat” to me, and I’d start all over again.
My wife staring at me the entire time like I was utterly fucking insane didn’t help matters any.
Borat at the wine tasting event. One hysterical line after another. Being stoned helped I’m sure. “American wine is like Kazak wine, only it isn’t made with fermented horses urine”
Back when I was in college. Someone in the dorm thought my laugh was funny, so he laughed which made me laugh, which made him laugh – it became the ultimate feedback loop.
Back in the early '80s I was working at an advertising agency, and compiling a list of Southwestern utility companies for a client. I suddenly saw on the list a company called (I am not making this up, though they have since changed their name) El Paso Gas.
I fell out of my chair like I’d been shot, and was curled up on the floor laughing so hard I wound up making those gasping inhaling noises. I couldn’t talk for a good half hour, I could only point helplessly to the list when people asked me what the hell was so funny.
This past Monday, I was watching the movie West Side Story with a bunch of my friends. It struck us all as silly and dated, and there was much sniggering. In one scene, Maria and Tony are making plans to meet in secret the next day. Maria says, “Tony, when you come, use the back door!” A couple people started sniggering, then laughing, then more people were laughing, until the whole room was cracking up.
Eve, that reminds me of a gas station near my house. It’s near Fresh Pond, so the owners decided to call it Fresh Pond Gas. I crack up every time I see their sign.
One of the hardest times I laughed was when I saw National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation at the theater. When Clark got frustrated over the Christmas lights not working and took out his frustrations on the lawn reindeer by kicking them I could hardly contain myself. I still bust out laughing every time that scene comes on when I watch the movie.
For older readers, Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko used to crack me up every week. Just a repeated simple plot of petty greed, but beautifully played by the ensemble cast.
Of course I fell off the couch laughing when Billy Connolly announced ‘that’s as unwelcome as a fart in a spacesuit’
About 5 years ago we were at a friends house playing cards. A new person was joining us for the first time for the card game and Steve, who is from North Carolina and has the slowest, southernist (is that a word?), drawl I have ever heard, turned to the newbie and said, “Lemme 'splain…” He couldn’t even finish the sentence. It’s one of those “had to be there” moments but I just fell over laughing. Then he started laughing. We couldn’t regain our composure for at least 30 minutes. My husband and his wife didn’t see the humor so every time one one ask what the hell was so funny, we would lose it all over again.
To this day I still giggle everytime I think about it.
I found The Aristocrats to be a highly offensive and embarassing movie. I was ashamed to watch it with my GF. I almost offered to turn it off. OK, one bit was worth a minor chuckle. But it was still the most unfunny movie I’ve ever seen. Yeah, there was another bit that was worth a tiny giggle. But mostly it was just dumb and offensive. Sure, a laugh here and there. And here.
By the time the mime came on, I thought I was going to die. I could no longer see, my eyes were tearing up so much. I could not catch my breath. I got a cramp in my ribs. And the sounds I was making? Sort of a low-pitched “Aaaark. Aaaark.” Follwed by a high-pitched “Hhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeee!”
I don’t know if these are the hardest I ever laughed, but they’re the two that come to mind:
The original airing of the Johnny Carson (as Carnac) joke about “Sis…boom…bah!” (“Describe the sound made when a sheep explodes.”) I don’t know why exactly, but that struck me so funny that I laughed for a very long time (along with the audience, who apparently was similarly afflicted.)
The “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” sketch with Richard Simmons. It’s tough to describe, but if you’ve seen it, you probably know what I mean. I think I hurt myself laughing the first time I saw that, and even now after having seen it several times it still cracks me up.
I think I hurt myself laughing the first time I saw that, and even now after having seen it several times it still cracks me up.